Perry taps $38 million in emergency funds to pay for National Guard on the border

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry has flexed his executive power to tap $38 million in emergency funds to pay for the early stages of a National Guard deployment to the border, his office said Friday.

The money will be drawn from an existing but unused pot belonging to the Department of Public Safety set up for emergency radio infrastructure and is expected to fund up to the first three months of the operation.

“The governor will continue working with state leadership to secure additional funding from sources including the governors authority to respond to emergencies and disasters and budget execution,” Perry spokesman Rich Parsons said.

Perry announced last week he will send up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the border to help law enforcement, as a crush of unaccompanied Central American children cross into Texas. The plan is estimated to cost about $12 million a month.

But Perry had not provided details on how to pay for the National Guard deployment until Friday. And lawmakers earlier this week at a House hearing grilled officials on costs, goals, necessity and effectiveness of the plan.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, raised more concerns about the border initiative in a letter Thursday to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus. She said that Perry’s plan is “lacking clarity,” and that the National Guard mission is set to run out of money by next week if state leaders did not act to secure more funding immediately.

“I strongly believe that it is irresponsible for this state to send our Guard to the border without ensuring they receive the funds they need to complete their mission,” wrote Van de Putte, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor and the chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and Military Installations.

Van de Putte called on Dewhurst and Straus, co-chairs of the Legislative Budget Board, to put National Guard funding on Tuesday’s agenda when the 10-member committee that makes budget and policy recommendations for legislative appropriations meets.

But Perry, along with Dewhurst and Straus, viewed executive action as the quickest temporary solution — a move that effectively sidesteps the Legislature and could rankle some members who don’t agree with the spending. The general idea: find a way to fund the first few months of the National Guard mission and then gauge what type of longer-term legislative appropriation would be necessary.

In a statement, Dewhurst said “at this point, executive action is an appropriate response, and, if needed, budget execution will be considered at a later time.”

Straus’ office researched a couple of different funding options and backed the idea of Perry using executive power to tap so-called “Disaster Funds,” a state pot funded at $63 million over the 2014-2015 biennium and one the speaker’s staff said had previously been used for border security measures.

Straus spokesman Jason Embry said the speaker wants funding decision back in the hands of the Legislative Budget Board once the border plan’s progress and goals are clearer.

“The Speaker stands ready to use the authority of the Legislative Budget Board once the Guard’s mission is fully under way and the actual costs of this deployment become more clear,” Embry said.